Papua New Guinea

27% of girls in Papua New Guinea are married before the age of 18 and 8% are married before their 15th birthday.

4% of Papua New Guinean boys are married before the age of 18.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Papua New Guinea, child marriage is also driven by:

Harmful practices: Papua New Guinean society highly values marriage as it is considered essential for strengthening kin ties and regenerating society. This can result in extra pressure on girls to get married. Arranged marriages are practiced by nearly all ethnic groups, especially in rural areas. Some groups who traditionally did not practise bride pride have adopted it in recent times as a way of demanding money for the marriage of their daughters.

Industry: Some girls are reportedly sold off as wives by parents, village chiefs or family members to local mining and logging workers in areas where extractive industries operate. A 2004 UNICEF study found that girls were being sold to men with large amounts of disposable cash earned through mining.

Adolescent pregnancy: Papua New Guinea has one of the highest early childbearing rates in the Asia-Pacific region. Between 2015-2020, 14% of adolescent girls gave birth before the age of 18. Adolescent pregnancy may occur before or right after the child marriage has taken place.

Religion: The Church, mostly Protestant as well as Catholic, reportedly contributes to a stereotype that women should be “good” according to Christian values, thus limiting their self-determination and sexual freedom.

Papua New Guinea has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a 2020 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

Papua New Guinea co-sponsored the 2013, 2014 and 2018 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Papua New Guinea ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2010 review, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern about the practice of bride price and child marriages in rural, remote areas.

During Papua New Guinea’s 2016 Universal Periodic Review, it was commended for taking several steps towards tackling child marriage, including the adoption of the Lukautim Pikinini (Child Amendment) Act 2014, which criminalised the marriage of children under the age of 18.

Papua New Guinea is one of the four countries in the Pacific region where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between European Union and United Nations) is supporting partners and institutions to eliminate violence against women and girls by 2030. The Spotlight Initiative's Pacific Regional Programme was launched in October 2020 in Fiji. This Initiative focuses on 16 countries in the Pacific region and aims to focus on addressing intimate partner violence, domestic violence, early marriage and sexual harassment. This initiative is coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Fiji, alongside UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, IOM and UNDP.

Papua New Guinea is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education, a pathfinder country of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and a Spotlight Initiative Country.

In 2016, the Papua New Guinea government announced amendments to the legal age of marriage through the Marriage (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Matrimonial (Clauses) Bill 2015. The proposed amendments would introduce a standard minimum age of 18 years for girls and boys. However, as of January 2020, no amendments have been adopted. In the 2021 Universal Periodic Review of Papua New Guinea, UNESCO recommended that the government continue its efforts to harmonise the Marriage Act with the Child Protection Act 2015.

The National Sexual Reproductive Policy (2014) recognised early marriage as a harmful practice and noted the need to increase the minimum age for marriage.

Under Article 7 of the Marriage Act 1963 (statutory law) the minimum legal age for marriage is 16 years for girls and 18 years for boys. However, girls can be married at 14 years and boys at 16 with judicial consent.

The Marriage Act 1963 recognises customary marriages. Under the traditional justice system, administered by male-dominated village courts, readiness for marriage is determined by maturity, allowing girls to be married as soon as they start their period.

This is rarely challenged in the courts because few people understand their constitutional rights.